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Revision TKR Lovetocookandsew’s long road to recovery

Thanks, Chris. I just hate having paid about $400 extra for the premier coverage instead of the basic coverage that's free and then not use it. It's not that big a deal, I'm just a total tightwad so hate to waste money.

I agree that it's a tad bit easier to walk around now than a month ago, as long as I don't sit on our sofa or chairs as I can't get back up from them yet. Getting onto my recliner isn't too hard, but getting up from it still requires help. Hopefully soon I'll be able to walk everywhere in the house multiple times each time instead of just going down one of the wings or to the kitchen at most. And hopefully soon I can switch to my cane and free up a hand, and then put away all the aids and just walk without pain of any kind. Freedom!

My OS told me the other day I was okay to use a cane when I was comfortable doing so, so I tried it today around the bedroom. Total fail.........grrrrrrrr. It increases the weight on my leg, which hurts more than I can stand, plus I walk differently with it than with the walker, which pulls on the thigh scar area, causing way too much pain, so the cane will have to wait for a while longer.

I also decided to try to put actual clothes on today instead of nightgowns and robes, but that was a total fail too. All my pants are either jeans or knit pants that I wear with long shirts or dresses. The jeans rubbed too much and were uncomfortable and tight on my leg, and the knit pants were snug on my leg even though they stretch, and are usually somewhat loose, which was uncomfortable and left a line down my leg from the seam from being too snug. The right leg also scrunched up when I was lying down, and then the bottom rubbed against the lower scars. Most of my leg is swollen, so I guess I'll have to stick to nightgowns, at least for now. I thought I had a couple of pairs of lounge-type silky pants, so I'll have to check the dresser in my closet for them. I may have donated them as I don't usually wear them, but I'll check just in case next time I'm in the closet.

I guess I was spoiled from my revision recovery, which makes this recovery even harder. I do see some progress, which is a good thing, I just wasn't expecting this to be so hard.
 
You had a much more involved surgery than I did and I stayed in a gown for a couple of months at home. When I went out I wore long skirts. Pants were definitely out for at least 3-4 months.
 
Glad to hear you are ever so slightly improving, it's not fun when one is constantly battling pain, but with time you'll get there, sounds like you've got yourself one great husband!
This time next year hopefully normality will have returned and you can celebrate in style.
Sending healing hugs to you xx
 
Tomorrow will be 5 weeks and things have gotten a little better, but are still far from my being able to function much at all. I still spend a lot of time just sitting with my leg slightly elevated. I stopped using the ice machine as it's just too painful to have anything on the surgical site, but plan to go back to it as soon as I can stand to have the wrap on my leg. Hopefully that'll be soon as my leg really is swollen and the ice would be helpful. I use my Lounge Doctor to elevate my blankets as I can't stand anything touching any part of my leg right now and it creates an open space for my leg where nothing touches it. I still can't use it to elevate as it still pulls and hurts too much.

The pain has continued, but I'm happy to say it's no longer at a 10, other than at times when I move the wrong way, or too much. I am getting a little sleep-not a lot but maybe 3 or 4 hours total-not in a solid block but in small 1-2 hour blocks. I still wake from pain, but am more able to rearrange my leg and eventually go back to sleep for another hour or two. Generally, when I'm not moving, the pain is not too bad, but movement ups it, sometimes to a 6-7-ish, but sometimes more, so I have to spend a lot of time still resting, and I move around carefully.

I'm doing a little more walking around the house-I still have to be careful to not walk too much or I pay for it. Tonight I went in and "made" dinner. Not really cooked as I just warmed something I had already made before the surgery, but I had to warm the smoked pork and put it in the taco shells, then top with cheese to go in the oven. Hubby helped with prep, getting some things, serving and then all the clean-up. Normally when I make something that simple I feel like I cheated and didn't really cook, but tonight I felt like I cooked a 3 course meal.

I still have to use the walker as the cane changes the way I walk, and just hurts too much. Even walking with the walker hurts, but not nearly as much as with the cane. A couple of times I've absentmindedly taken a step without using the walker, and my leg instantly yells at me, so it'll be a while before I can lose both the walker, and then the cane, drat it all.

I also still can't get up from a chair or toilet so I still use the toilet riser (which I really don't like as it's not really comfortable nor designed as well as I would like) and I just don't sit on chairs. I'm dying to take a nice long hot bath, but for now an occasional shower has to suffice.

All in all, while not great, I am a little better. This recovery has been worse than I ever would have thought, but at least I've got 5 weeks behind me now, and I am seeing that proverbial light at the end of a very long tunnel.
 
You are making progress, Kim, even though it seems to be very slow. I'm amazed at how much you accomplished in preparing your taco meal.

I guess this time you're going to be a turtle, or a tortoise. Remember who won that race between the tortoise and the hare?
[Bonesmart.org] Lovetocookandsew’s long road to recovery


Have a happy, quiet Christmas. :loveshwr:
 
Finally, another step accomplished. Last night, in the middle of the night, I woke up (I'm still not sleeping well) so decided to use the restroom. When getting back into bed, I couldn't find my leg lifter (silly me-it was on my walker...snake bit...lol) so used my left hand under my knee and got back into bed. Yes, it hurt, but it still hurts to use the leg lifter. I was able to get it back on the bed without screaming pain, which I hadn't been able to do so far. I've been able to lift my leg by itself for a while, but don't do it as it hurts a ton. My doctor cut a very long swath through that muscle there, so any lifting, or using that muscle, still hurts like the dickens. But relaxing my leg and allowing the leg lifter, and now my hand, to do the work is much easier on me.

During the last stretch of sleep early this am, I apparently turned onto my side and slept on my wound, until it woke me. As a result, I was in a lot more pain all morning than I have been the last couple of days. :censored::hairpulling::tantrum2:

Another good thing......we decided we wanted steak for dinner tonight, so I seasoned a couple of ribeyes, put them in a vacuum seal bag and put those in the Sous Vide. My husband did all the fetching, filling the container with water, and so on; all I had to do was season, bag, seal and plop into the water. At the end, one of us will sear them, probably me...lol. But even that's easy to do with a sous chef to do all the fetching, etc. So tonight we get a really nice, fresh dinner! We'll have the steaks, some fresh cauliflower from our garden and some other side dish. Yum!
 
Little steps, one day at a time, and look you are already cooking a little.
Your dinner sounds delicious.
Hope tomorrow brings more small improvements.
 
Dinner was good, but not great. We ended up changing the sides a little as I'm not up to making all that. So, we had the ribeyes, which were yummy, a frozen Normandy vegetable mix and hubby wanted tater tots :heehee:, so we had those also. It was good, especially after nearly 6 weeks of hospital food, my pre-made frozen meals and some fast food, but would have been great with fresh cauliflower and brown rice or maybe a green salad.
 
Just catching up on your thread. Hey...small improvements are at least a step in the right direction. Woohoo! :happydance: Dinner sounded good, your side ideas sound better than hubs, but who can’t eat a few tater tots once in awhile :wink:
Hope this week is a good one for you! :)
@lovetocookandsew
 
Happy New Year everyone!

We celebrated "Christmas" on Tuesday with family. It was a nice evening; we shared dinner our daughter cooked, then opened gifts. Unfortunately, it meant a day of torture for me yesterday as apparently my leg was not happy sitting in my recliner, even with it reclined so my leg was elevated, for an hour or so. It was the first time I'd done that, and I won't be doing it again until my recovery is further along. I also sat in a chair for about 15 minutes to eat dinner; that was also too much but I wanted to eat with people instead of alone with a tray, so forced myself to do it.

I was back to pain levels of 10 all day yesterday, so did nothing other than go to the bathroom. It's not like I did much Tuesday, but I still paid the price.

I see my doctor for my six week check on Tuesday, and have to spend about 45 minutes in the car each way, plus get from the car to the doctor's office, which is a bit of a hike. My husband is planning on getting me a wheeled chair from inside so I don't have to walk, but I think I'll see how far I can get before needing a chair. Thankfully we can park in the handicapped area, so at least that'll shorten the walk some. I'll be using crutches instead of my walker, so am hoping those will be easier to navigate while there. I'm pretty sure it will cause me a lot of pain for a day or so afterwards, but I have to go, so will have to just grit my teeth and get through it all.
 
lovetocookandsew said:
I see my doctor for my six week check on Tuesday, and have to spend about 45 minutes in the car each way,
Click to expand...
Are you able to set it up so you can ride in the backseat? I did that in a friend's van with pillows to elevate and ice packs. It wasn't great but much better than sitting in the front seat.
 
I don't want to highjack the thread but I have a funny story about getting home from the hospital revision #2.

Let me say that backseats are the best, if possible. The thing is here in TX when friends volunteered to bring me home from the hospital I 'assumed' they'd bring their SUV. Wrong assumption on my part. They brought the giant pickup truck! They thought the backseat would be bigger than the SUV - which is a good assumption. However, getting me into the high off the ground pickup was comical, to say the least. With everyone trying to help me I just couldn't do it. Finally after I asked everyone to step away from me and to let me do it myself, I finally got in. Not pretty to see, but I somehow managed to get on the step up rails then get my backside on the backseat floor. I shimmied (again not pretty) to the middle of the floor and rolled myself onto the seat!! By the time I'd done that I was beyond exhausted and we were all so tickled all we could do was laugh. But I did it and got home safely. I will say for revision #3 they brought the suv including pillows. We all giggled about that also.

I've wondered if the surgeons realized how difficult getting into and out of vehicles really is. Then you only have to go back to the office in a week or two. Best of luck with your ride. If you need to distract yourself from pain just think of me hopping onto pickup truck steps then jumping into the floor board. What a laugh - now.
 
I specifically told my husband not to bring his giant truck, but to bring my SUV. Even with that I couldn't get into the back seat-the orderly and my husband had to get one on each side of the car and push/pull me onto the seat. It was awful but it got me home. Right now, because my entire leg is swollen, including my knee which I can't bend much, I cannot get into the front seat. It's my right leg, so needs to bend enough to get in which I can't do. A couple of weeks ago, I tested it out and was barely able to get into the front seat, but I had more bend then than I do now as my leg has gotten a lot more swollen lately.

I don't measure my ROM, but I'd be surprised if my flex is more than 70, if even that. I'm at 6 weeks, and he didn't do my knee, he did my thigh and the front of my shin, so my knee shouldn't be so swollen, or at least I don't think it should be. Who knows, it may be very normal for this surgery.
 
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